A Midsummer Night's Dream

Artistic Director....…...Kim Tuttle Choreography.……....Kim Tuttle Music …………... Mendelssohn Dance Alive National Ballet’s Curriculum …….....Judy Skinner Costume Sketches ……………. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Catherine Goldman Bloomfield Dance Alive National Ballet is a professional ballet company touring the Southeastern United States and Latin America representing the State of Florida. Dance Alive National Ballet lives up to its name. Movement is at the heart of everything it does. With an extraordinary group of “ A wonderful way to introduce your dancers from all over the students to the wit and whimsy world, and dynamic leader and Artistic Director, of Shakespeare’s comedy!” Kim Tuttle, Dance Alive National Ballet has developed “Comic chases abound when mortals mix into one of the most distinguished and creative with faerie people! Confusion reigns when ballet companies in the Puck’s mischief making magic goes awry - Southeast. Dance Alive National Much to the dismay of the rulers of the faerie Ballet continues to develop kingdom, King Oberon and Queen Titania!” innovative arts education programming and is involved in artist residen- “Costumes and dance movements captured realistic cies, developing dance mannerisms that blended with fantasy and magic.. curriculum and outreach Our senses were delightfully riveted from performances for public schools. beginning to end.” DANB is sponsored in part by a grant from the National Endow- ment for the Arts, The State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Arts Council, the City of Gainesville, Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs and the Alachua County Commission. Permission is granted for material included in this Re- 1 source Guide to be copied for use in the classroom. Illustrations by Catherine Goldman Bloomfield Welcome to A Midsummer Night’s Dream curriculum guide! There are LOTS of materials in this guide! Great ways to use this arts education field trip to enhance your curriculum. Please use our suggestions as springboards and ENJOY! This curriculum guide is designed to be an interdisciplinary resource for teachers K through grade 12. The guide includes: pre-and post-performance activities for grades K– 5, with activities organized in a thematic and developmental order to stimulate the student’s interest and heighten the value of their experience at the performance. materials that may be integrated into grade 6-12 existing courses of study. Activities are designed for easy integra- tion into school subjects and skill areas so that materials can be utilized to teach required concepts and skills Many of the activities have been correlated with Florida Literacy Standards. This guide is organized into four major sections: Section One: Preparation (Pre-performance Activities) Grades K-5 (Pages 1-10) Activities in this section are designed to establish a foundation for active audience participation in the dance performance. The topics include dance and choreographic activities, the story, the music, introduction to the dancers and audience etiquette. Section Two: Reaction (Post-performance Activities) Grades K-5 (Pages 11-17) Activities in this section are designed to guide students in responding to the dance presentation. The process will help students make sense of their initial reactions to the dance presentation and come to a deeper understanding of the dance. Topics include first impression, and inventory of observations, interpretation and life applications. Section Three: Materials for Grade 6-12. (Pages 18-24) Activities in this section include suggestions for cooperative learning topics, reaction papers, discussion questions, and suggestions for creative projects. Section Four: Teacher Resources (Pages 25-39) This section includes background information on the original work, composer, choreographer and ballet. It also includes additional activities by subject area and a glossary/vocabulary. We hope you find these materials of use. Let us hear from you at any time with suggestions as to how to improve them, requests for additional information and assistance—and any news of your experiences and those of your students as you enjoy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 2 ABOUT DANCE ALIVE NATIONAL BALLET Dance Alive National Ballet is a professional dance company that does indeed live up to its name! Movement is at the heart of everything it does and does this Company move! Enlivened by an extraordinary group of dancers and its dynamic and innovative Artistic Director Kim Tuttle, nobody creates finer dance performances in this part of the United States. A fully professional ballet company, DANB has been selected for Florida’s Touring Program for over 38 years; the only ballet company that has done so. Dancers are from the United States, Cuba, Brazil, Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil Italy and China and have won numerous international competitions. The Com- pany has toured Costa Rica, Russia and Brazil and performed for HSH Prince Albert of Monaco at his re- quest. DANB has developed into one of the most distinguished and creative ballet companies in the Southeast. Recognized for its superb performances, choreography and educational programming, DANB continues to develop innovative arts education programming and is involved in artist residencies, developing dance curriculum for public schools and outreach performances for underserved urban and rural schools. One of the region’s artistic and cultural treasures, DANB continues to tour the US and Latin America representing the State of Florida. We invite you to enjoy this talented company of energetic and versatile dancers. Like the audiences in Costa Rica, you will, “admire the exquisite combination of techniques …….the tradition of the Bolshoi, the spirit of jazz and the DANB in Festivo. Photo Johnston Photography. 3 Preparation Pre-Performance Activities Grades K-5 Additional activities and accompanying standards can be found in the section designed for grades 6-12. 4 AUDIENCE MANNERS OBJECTIVE Students will be able to recommend appropriate behavior for attending a dance performance. ACTIVITY 1. Initiate a discussion with your students on the effects different kinds of audience behavior can have on people's enjoyment of a performance. 2. Make a list of short statements which express the ideas of your students on the chalkboard or a chart. Ask the students to offer ideas in the form of audience behavior they would recommend. 3. Ask each student to choose one statement, draw a picture to illustrate it, and write the statement at the bottom of the page. Make copies of the pages. Help your students collate and staple the pictures together to make books to share with each other and with other classes. EXTENSIONS/VARIATIONS 1. Have the students color and display their pages on a bulletin board. 2. Have the students act out skits demonstrating different appropriate and inappropriate audience actions. THEATRE: TH.K.S.1.1, TH.1.S.1.1, TH.3.S.1.1, TH.4.S.1.1, TH.4.O.1.2, TH.5.S.1.1 MUSIC: MU.K.F.3.1, MU.1.F.3.1, MU.R.C.1.1 Ready for the show! 5 DANCE IS EVERYWHERE OBJECTIVE The students identify and demonstrate movement elements common to dance. ACTIVITY This is charades with an instructional purpose! In order to begin this activity, first create a space in the classroom that provides room for individual students to move freely and room for other students to observe. 1. Introduce the activity with a discussion of types of movements present in all areas of life. Encourage students to come up with examples from areas such as sports (ice skating, catching a fly ball), animals (hop like a bunny, run like a deer), occupations (policeman directing traffic, carpenter hammering a nail), everyday activities (sweeping the floor, driving a car), and recreation (catching a fish, riding a roller coaster). 2. Have each student take a small piece of paper, write on it a type of movement to be acted out, and drop it into a large container. NOTE: For younger students, teachers may want to make the charade cards for them. 3. The charades will be played in the order the teacher pulls the slips of paper from the container - or let the children take turns. A timekeeper says, "Begin," and the student on the "stage" dramatizes the movement chosen. A charade should be guessed by the audience within a ten-second time. Follow the charades with a summary discussion about some of the following movement elements: non-locomotor movements such as bend, twist, stretch and swing. simple locomotor movements such as walk, run, hop, jump. compound locomotor movements such as gallop, slide and leap. kinesthetic awareness such as high, middle and low movements in space. tempo and rhythmic pattern of repetitive movements movement follows straight and curved pathways. Encourage students to identify and describe rhythmic movements in everyday situations. EXTENSIONS/VARIATIONS 1. One or more "movements" in the same space can "dance" together, representing their relationships (For example, a fox stalking a rabbit or a baseball catcher and pitcher). 2. Classify movements into categories such as high, middle or low, fast or slow, straight or curved and round or square/angular. 3. Students can play the game using movements which convey a particular emotion or feeling. THEATRE: TH.K.F.1.1 SCIENCE: SC.K.P.12.1, SC.K.P.13.1, SC.1.P.13.1 DANCE: DA.K.C.1.1, DA.K.C.2.1, DA.K.S.1.1 & 1.2, DA.K.S.3.1 & 3.3 & 3.4, DA.K.O.1.1, DA.K.O.3.1 & 3.2, DA.1.C.2.1, DA.1.S.1.1 & 1.2 6 DISCOVERING DANCE OBJECTIVE Students can demonstrate movement elements and choreographic principles, processes and structures. ACTIVITY 1. Divide the students into small groups. Have each group choose a familiar children's song that tells a story and create a dance to tell the story.

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